


pieces of us slipping away

by the_musical_alchemist



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Blind!Roy, F/M, i hope you like it ;;, takes place during the promised day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 20:52:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9202796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_musical_alchemist/pseuds/the_musical_alchemist
Summary: He’d give anything to keep his fleeting image of her, however right or wrong it may look, because he knows one day, that too will be lost in the darkness.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Companion to two of the mini songs I wrote for RoyaiWeek16! You can find them in the music tag on my Tumblr (the-musical-alchemist), if you're curious to hear. :D

_I remember blurry eyes dimming to black as I closed mine._   
_Where is the light?_   
_I am losing grip of the words dying on our lips._

* * *

_Colonel!_

Her voice sinks into his mind and acts as a crutch, helping him move forward, though not out. No, there isn’t a way out. There is only a path toward what is next. One he’ll have to find on his own through instinct and his own skill as a leader, as well as his experience of pulling the broken pieces of himself back together.

Yes, he’s done this before.

Though never quite like this.

Never without her.

He’s overwhelmed, dizzied by the excess of knowledge that he can almost feel spilling out from his ears. Maybe in a different world, his vision would be a suitable toll for all that he is now able to see. To someone else, all of this might be worth it.

First it was white. Then it was everything in a spinning flurry of color as the world expanded in his mind. It filled every crevice until he thought his skull might burst open, setting free what never belonged with him in the first place.

And now it is black.

Terror numbs him down to his fingertips. He didn’t know. He’d taken everything for granted. If only he’d used an extra moment to look at her. If only he could have committed the exact color of her eyes to memory. Why hadn’t he ever taken the time to admire the slope of her nose, the line of her jaw, the curve of her lips?

When his memory paints a picture of her, he knows it misses the shame in her eyes, because he’s never been anything but proud of her. He always saw her for who she is, which is so much brighter than how she carries herself.

In his mind, she is everything.

In her eyes, she is nothing.

In his darkness, he wishes he could look at her just one more time.

The very last thing he heard before sinking into the oblivion of deafening silence was her calling out to him. It wasn’t right. The scream that tore through her was too desperate, too broken, too desolate to belong to the steady heart that always guided his right.

He hates Bradley for dragging that sound out of her. For the relentless grip he still has on them both.

He’d give anything to keep his fleeting image of her, however right or wrong it may look, because he knows one day, that too will be lost in the darkness.

This country, this war, this day, has taken and taken and taken from him. And like a fool, he continues to give in hopes that one day, it will be returned to him in the form of a brighter future.

Roy Mustang is an alchemist to a fault.

But he is also a terrible loser and more than that, his dreams are bigger than his fears. He won’t accept a future written by anyone but himself. He may have been a sacrifice, but he is not yet dead.

Later, they find each other beyond the silence, beyond the all-consuming fire, beyond the pervasive deadly air, because she is determined where he is lost. Clinging to each other, they nearly collapse when they step onto the battlefield, and perhaps individually they might have. But their broken remains come together and like this, they are lethal.

His arm wraps around her waist while her fingers twist through his shirtfront. She smells like blood and sweat and gunpowder and he breathes it in like it’s the only air that could ever sustain him. It’s Riza. It’s home.

He cannot see a thing. Soon, he knows her face will blur as she will continue to grow old and change on the other side of the darkness he’s forever trapped in. But right now, he can feel her next to him, hear her steady voice again as she barks out the path through which he must direct his flames. For this battle, for every battle before this one, she is and has been his eyes. He cannot see her face, but he can read her even in the dark.

Yes, he’s done this before.

Maybe not quite like this.

But she has always been there. She will always be with him.

The flames they wield belong to them both. It’s her alchemy, his hand, their combined strength. His heart is in the blow and her soul is in the embers.

The fighting comes to an end much later and it isn’t until then when the two of them fall into each other. They aren’t aware of the crowds of people, the cries of victory, or even the ashy remnants of the battle still drifting through the air. Together, they collapse to the ground. She buries her face in his shoulder, her fingers still clutching at the front of his uniform. One of his hands finds her head and he tangles his fingers with her hair while his free arm squeezes her against him. He doesn’t care who can see them. She is the only thing that exists.

“It’s over,” she whispers into his coat.

“I love you,” he murmurs, because he does. Because he has for so long. Because right now, he’s at once intoxicated by their victory and terrified of losing whatever they have left. They live within the top half of an hourglass and each passing second is another piece of her that he’ll soon forget. Or maybe even something else that will escape them. Whether that’s time, hope, or either of their lives.

He feels her grip tighten as she nods. All this time, she’s vowed to follow him into hell, but it was always her in the lead. Maybe not overtly, but he’s been following her through the dark for as long as they’ve been together. There isn’t a way out. There never has been, not for them. But he knows she will continue to guide him through.

* * *

_Don’t step too close to the fire, stay close to me._   
_The walls are burning away to set us free._   
_Your soul is written in every ember’s glow._   
_This warmth speaks a language only we know._

_It follows your heart._   
_You’re my eyes in the dark._

* * *


End file.
